Giant Asian Hornets. (coming to America?)

What's the buzz about giant Asian hornets? They'll kill you painfully and thoroughly -- and they've been reported in the U.S.

(I don't know how to upload a pic but there is a pic on the linked page.)

According to The Guardian, at least "28 people have died and hundreds have been injured in a wave of attacks by giant hornets in central China."
The hornets, also known as Vespa mandarinia, have reportedly "chased [victims] for hundreds of meters... and stung [them] as many as 200 times."

The average stinger on a giant Asian hornet measures about a quarter-inch. The hornets were reported in Illinois last year.

The hornets are about the size of your thumb. I don't have a bee phobia but I do have a giant Asian hornet phobia.

Holy Crap! I think we may have them in MI!
A girl I work with killed a wasp that big this past weekend and took a picture of it.
I'm going to try to upload it here.
The stinger scares the heck out of me, it's so big.

I saw pictures of some queen hornets yesterday on the internet. OH. MY. GOD.
I would imagine the venom of a sting of even one of those hornets would make someone
very sick. I understand the worker hornets are smaller .. but still ... WOW.
I can't imagine surviving the sting of even two or three let alone a swarm.

According to the Associated Press, more than 100 people in the Angkang city area of Shaanxi province have been stung by swarms of the insects
in recent months, and treated in Ankang City Central Hospital.
Eighteen of them have died, according to health officials, but a local state-run newspaper claimed 21 have died in hospitals.
The insect responsible is believed to be the Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia), the largest insect of its type in the world with an extremely
potent sting which can cause anaphylactic shock and renal failure.

Don't worry about it tweetybird. Loads of folks have a moan about posts being too similar to other posts, but posts move that quickly and people have
time away from ATS. At the end of the day if some ATS members haven't seen the information before, then it gives them the opportunity to do so, and
all the others that have seen the info, they don't have to try and stop members contributing really, do they?

Had one of these buzzing me a few weeks ago...
It was the variety that is colored a lot like a yellow jacket.
The sucker freaked me out.
My son's German Shepherd was watching me back away...and back away again...and again...and finally jumped into action, chasing the hornet away.
I am, in West Texas... So - these things ARE in the continental U.S. now.
(I believe that they are also colloquially called cicada-killers.)

My dog would have turn and ran. lol
Sometimes I think he's where the saying, "all bark and no bite" originated.

Yeah - he was just curious as to what was making me act so freakishly.
Don't know what he would have done if he'd caught it...
I was holding a cup of coffee in my hand -- so -- don't know if that's why the hornet kept coming at me...or if it would have come at me in any
case.
Only saw it one more time (within the following few days), and it wasn't as obnoxious on that occasion.

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